Kakashi's Dream Team
by saku642734
Summary: A decision made by Kakashi about the team assignments causes a few prospective genin to be shuffled around. Allowing Kakashi to finally find a team that Exceeds his expectations.
1. Chapter 1

**This story is based on Naruto written by Misashi Kishimoto**

 **A/N: i've loved Naruto for almost my entire life so it's about time i tried writing a fic about it. Hope you all enjoy :)**

* * *

Kakashi sighed in resignation as he waited for the Hokage to get started. The office is currently filled with prospective jounin sensei. With the academy graduation happening within a week, it was time to be informed of team assignments.

His fingers twitched, longing to pull out his precious book and keep his mind busy, but refrained for now. Kakashi might as well pretend to be interested in his possible team. No matter the students, in his mind, they've failed his test already.

Until they prove him wrong of course. He can be a generous man when he wants to be. Nevermind that they never have, and he doubts they ever will.

The Hokage clears his throat to gain their attention and the quiet chatter ceased immediately. "I will announce your assigned teams, save your questions for the end."

He started listing all of them off, skipping the team numbers still in circulation.

Kakashi didn't bother paying attention until a certain name came up early on.

"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke -"

Well that was a dumpster fire of a team if he ever heard one. Who in their right mind would put Naruto and the Uchiha together? He had seen them together enough times back when he was on anbu rotation as one of Naruto's guards. And there's the fact that knowledge of their rivalry carries to even the jounin lounge.

Believe it or not, jounin are shameless gossips.

"- are assigned to Hatake Kakashi."

Kakashi's mind screeched to a halt.

He must have heard wrong, because there was no way he was going to be responsible for that disaster waiting to happen.

Kakashi is not qualified.

He's one of the worst senseis he knows. Beyond unqualified, this is negligence plain and simple.

If he can barely handle a normal team there is no way that he would be able to cope with this one.

The Uchiha is one thing, and possible to handle. Naruto is another. The resemblance to his parents in looks and personality is more painful than he would like to admit.

And the Uchiha and Naruto together?

It would be like watching a young version of himself and Obito.

Constantly.

He feels some sympathy towards their other teammate.

But that's beside the point, he has to think of a way to get out of this line up.

Team 7, at a glance, looks like it will be slotted as a combat team, suited to be destructive. And if he was listening correctly, team 8 is meant to be a tracking team.

And while Kakashi is capable of destruction and teaching it to a degree. Tracking is one of his distinctive specialties. While he is mostly considered a jack of all trades, master of none. He is infact, a master of some. And Tracking is one of those things.

And Kakashi likes to think of himself as well rounded.

Back to the point. This is good, he can swing this in his favor.

While he longs to seek comfort in Icha-Icha, that will have to wait till after he's taken care of this.

After a few minutes of going down the list, the Hokage finally finishes. "The floor is open to your questions."

After a moment of waiting to see if anyone had one, Kakashi steps forward.

All eyes in the room zero in on Kakashi. He has never had anything to say during these meetings. He certainly has never cared enough before.

"Hai Hokage-sama, I object to my team assignment." He said with his signature eye crinkle.

Everyone's gaze grew more intense. This wasn't unheard of, but Kakashi never bothered before.

The Hokage raised a brow at the bluntness, but was otherwise unsurprised. "care to elaborate?"

Kakashi shrugs. "Team 7 would never work. There's no way they would be able to pass my test." His visible eye crinkles so much it's almost completely closed. "You want me to be able to pass a genin team eventually right?"

At the prospect of Kakashi finally taking on a team, the Hokage gives into his curiosity. "What would be your proposed alternative?"

"Well Team 8 has the makings of a tracking team, one of my specialties, as you know." His nonchalance intact, he turns to Kurenai. "What do you think, want to switch?"

While Kurenai looks slightly intrigued, she's not convinced.

The Hokage interrupts before she can refuse or deny. "You know as well as I that the elders are pushing for you to have young Uchiha Sasuke on your team, as the only other wealder of the sharingan you would be an ideal sensei."

Kakashi's eye smile turns a little sharper. "If that's the only issue, you can assure the elders that I will teach him how to use it when the time comes. Besides," he continues deviously, "I doubt he would pass my test. The elders want him on a genin team don't they?"

The Hokage seems to hum in agreement, but Kakashi isn't finished yet.

"Being Uchiha Sasuke's jounin sensei would also mean neglecting his teammates, by making him my main priority. That would be very unfair for Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto."

And that was really the main worry for the Hokage, the genin all need instruction from their sensei. Favoritism can mean death for the other students.

The Hokages nods. "Very well." He turns his head. "Yuhi Kurenai, anything to add."

Kurenai seems to have grimaced at something Kakashi had mentioned but answers anyway. "Hokage-sama, I request that if you switch teams, Hyuga Hinata will remain under my care." At the Hokage's questioning glance she continues. "Hyuga Hiashi was somehow already aware of the team assignments and contacted me. He expressed his desire for me to meet Hyuga Hinata. Having already met her, I believe I am best suited to teaching her and supporting her as a sensei." She also adds in an extra tidbit. "You need not worry about neglected students, I will teach and support all three."

With a hand over his heart Kakashi dramatically says, "Kurenai-san, your faith in me is astounding."

While amused at Kakashi, the Hokage continues. "Your request is sound, as long as you are able to pay equal attention to all of your genin, there shouldn't be a problem. But I will be checking in for updates." At Kurenai's nod, he continues with his announcement, "Team 7 will be changed to Hyuga Hinata, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, assigned to Yuhi Kurenai."

And now the moment that would forever alter Kakashi's future, regardless if he ever realizes it.

"Team 8 will be Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino, assigned to Hatake Kakashi."


	2. Chapter 2

**This story is based on Naruto written by Masashi Kishimoto**

 **A/N: mostly just setting sakura up for success with a kick in the ass to set her priorities straight.**

 **Hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

Sakura rushed through her routine and flew out the door.

Graduation will happen in only a few days and she will finally be a genin. Until then she wants to savor every moment she can around Sasuke-kun.

Even though she still holds hope they will be on the same team, better to be safe than sorry.

Sakura slides to a stop next to the entrance, kicking up a cloud of dust.

A few seconds later another cloud appears.

"Aha!" Sakura crows with a fist pump. "Beat you here Ino-pig!"

Ino growls. "Whatever Billboard-Brow."

Barely coming down the road after Ino is Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru sighs. "Can we not do this so early in the morning? Honestly woman, why would you drag us here so early?"

Ino crosses her arms over her chest and scoffs at him. "I need to be able to spend every moment I can with my Sasuke-kun." She scowls. "Tou-san won't let me leave without you, so stop complaining you lazy slob."

Shikamaru just grimaces. "Tsk, I know, troublesome woman."

Sakura crinkles her nose at him but decides to take pity on the guy. He only complains this much because Ino knows how to push all of his buttons. Which is something they have in common.

Sakura casually bumps shoulders with Ino. "Bet you can't reach Sasuke-kun's seat first." She smirks at Ino's panicked expression. "Winner gets to sit next to him all day."

"You're on Billboard-Brow!" Ino yells furiously before taking off towards their classroom, leaving dust clouds in her wake.

Glancing at Shikamaru, she can already see his shoulders relaxing. "Enjoy your naps while you can, I'm not doing this again."

He merely nods. "Thanks Sakura, I owe you one."

Sakura nods and starts making her way towards the classroom. She didn't have to see his expression to know he was serious. A Nara always repays their debts, no matter how small.

And really to him it's no small thing. When Ino isn't sitting next to Sasuke-kun, she sits next to Shikamaru. Waking him up from every nap out of spite, and some anger that she didn't get the seat.

Entering the class she takes her usual seat, When the one next to Sasuke-kun is taken. As she sits down Shino looks up from his seat next to her and nods in greeting.

During the early years of the academy Sakura sat with Ino. After that, she had needed to find a new place to sit when the other seat was taken. Shino is quiet, he doesn't bother talking if he doesn't need to, he also isn't rude. And Sakura appreciates the silence.

When they started learning about Shinobi clans, Sakura spent her time researching all of her classmates' clans including the Aburame. The bugs don't bother her as much after all that research. Even so they hardly speak to each other when they sit together.

Sakura pulls out her notebook and pens for note taking, and proceeds to spend the rest of her time before class starts staring dreamily at Sasuke-kun.

* * *

Sakura groans and lays her head down on her desk.

So far the day has gone horribly for her. Starting from Ino claiming the coveted seat, it went downhill fast. Not that it went any better for Ino.

From what Sakura could tell from a distance, while Ino sat next to Sasuke-kun she took every chance she could to get him to talk to her. And while it's not out of the ordinary to get nothing from him, it would have been a nice surprise.

They took every opportunity to interact with him, even going as far as getting too close during throwing Practice. Which wasn't smart, if the kunai that was a hair's breadth away from slashing her shoulder had anything to say about it.

Sakura and Ino even had their lunch closer to him than they usually would. A little more daring than they usually were.

And aside from his eyebrow twitching every once in a while, they got no reaction.

Sakura sighs despairingly, it was one of those days where she question her life's purpose. Why bother Sasuke-kun so much when she knows it will never work. Does Sakura keep trying or does she stop?

But before she can think about it any longer, Ino makes her choice for her. Just like every other time Sakura asks herself this question.

"Finally ready to give up yet forehead?" Ino taunts from her seat with an assured expression.

Sakura sits up straighter and glares back. "Not a chance pig."

That being said there wasn't a lot of time left in class for them to try much else today.

Right when Iruka-sensei dismisses them Ino and Sakura cut off Sasuke-kun's exit.

"Hi Sasuke-kun, I was wondering-."

"-Thought it would be nice if-."

"-We could go out some-."

"-You wanted to go on a date?"

Sakura and Ino asked him out while elbowing each other. Their words overlapping so much it wouldn't be a surprise if they were unintelligible.

After they were finished they just stared, waiting for his answer.

Sasuke-kun's eyebrow is twitching sporadically now and tries to compose himself before opening his mouth.

Sakura wishes he had kept it shut and walked away.

"Listen, because i'm only going to say this once." This was already the most he had ever spoken to either of them so they just nodded, ignoring the cold tone. "You are the most annoying and pathetic people here, 100 times worse than Naruto." He paused to let it sink in. "You are beneath my notice, I wouldn't even be bothering with this if you hadn't been worse than usual today. You'll never be anything but weak cannon fodder. Romance is a waste of time and being strong is all that matters."

With his words hanging in the air he pushes past them and out the door.

Ino and Sakura stand there in a daze for a moment snapping out of when they notice there are still a few people there in the classroom.

Shikamaru stands up sharply from his seat and stalks towards them with murder in his eyes, choji not far behind looking torn. Shikamaru gives Sakura a nod and grabs Ino's arm, dragging her out the door. Choji pauses briefly to place a whole bag of chips in her hands before following after them. The gesture was almost enough to make her cry.

Shino, the last person left, walks over and pats her on the arm slightly in an uncharacteristic show of support. "I wouldn't pay any attention to Uchiha-san's words, why? Because I know how seriously you take your studies." He continues past her towards the door. "And because tou-san has always said that romance is acceptable as long as it doesn't interfere with training or any Shinobi duties." With one last nod he's gone, leaving Sakura alone in the now empty classroom.

* * *

Sakura walked home on autopilot and sat down on her bed to think. Her parents were still out so there was no one to distract her.

She can't even act like she's surprised. Sakura couldn't even count how many times she wondered if it was worth it. How many times she forced herself to say yes because of all the things she had sacrificed. It spiraled out of control and went from, 'he looks cute' to, 'I won't let Ino-pig have him'.

By the time she accepted she wasn't that interested it was already too late, so she put the thought out of her mind.

She had to make him worth it. Sakura gave up her favorite foods, let her hair grow out, less exercise to minimize sweat, impractical clothes, overly cheerful and overly hostile attitude, Ino.

The last one made her choke and start to tear up. Because that was what drove her the most.

When there was doubt, she would always think to herself, 'I lost Ino because of you', she never let herself give up.

But today his words gave her the push she needed to finally stop.

She remembers Shino's parting words.

" _And because tou-san has always said that romance is acceptable as long as it doesn't interfere with training or any Shinobi duties."_

That's exactly what she did. Sakura let it interfere with everything.

"Ino-chan."

She curled up on her bed and sobbed.

* * *

The next morning Sakura woke up earlier than usual and got ready for the academy. For the first time in a long time there was no self imposed pressure to please anyone but herself. It was a good feeling.

There was no way she was going to wear that dress anymore, so she goes over and looks through her closet.

After digging around she finally pulls out some capris and a green zip-up vest her tou-san gave her. He said the shade matched her eyes.

She puts on the red ribbon that Ino gave her so long ago, as usual. She never did stop wearing it, and it was why she bothered wearing a red dress. Green and blue have always been her favorite colors.

She grabs the bag of chips choji was kind enough to give her, and some dango from the fridge on her way out.

* * *

Sakura sat down at the entrance to the academy and savored the last of the chips, having already finished her stick of dango.

It wasn't long after she finished that Ino, Shikamaru and Choji came into view. They weren't even arguing about silly things like they usually would.

Sakura stood to greet them and locked gazes with Ino. In an instant Ino's lip started to wobble precariously and Sakura started sniffling.

In a simultaneous burst of tears they both slammed together in a hug and dropped to the ground gripping each other.

"We're so stupid!"

"I'm so sorry Ino-chan!"

"How did this happen?!"

"I don't know! I just remember you being angry when I called him cute and not knowing what to do!"

"I'm the worst friend ever! My sweet Saku-chan! What have I done? Shika! Why didn't you punch me in the face in the face or something! You're supposed to be smart!"

While they were crying on the ground Shikamaru was panicking. "Choji, what do we do? I don't know what to do when they cry."

Choji starts munching on his chips faster under the stress. "If you don't know, I definitely don't."

Shikamaru is about ready to put out his hair. "Sakura! What do you need?"

She pauses in her yelling and looks over with tears in her eyes and reaches out a hand. "We n-need a group hug."

The boys exchange a bewildered glance as Ino holds out her arm too. "G-get in here."

Deciding it was best not to argue, they hesitantly step forward.

Once they were within reach Sakura and Ino yankl them down into their small huddle, holding onto them as strongly as they grip each other.

After a few minutes the crying stops and the sniffling lessens.

"Want to go get a haircut later?"

"That would be nice."

"Troublesome."


	3. Chapter 3

**This story is based on Naruto written by Masashi Kishimoto**

 **A/N: to answer some questions, it will be mostly sakura-centric for now, before becoming team-centric. And all members of the team will be specializing in something different from their cannon versions. Skills besides clan stuff.**

 **Hope you enjoy :)**

* * *

After calming down and cleaning themselves up they make their way to the classroom. Both feel like a weight they didn't even noticed before has been lifted.

Both of them calmly walk to their seats, Ino following Shikamaru and Choji while Sakura sat next to Shino.

This of course surprised everyone.

It didn't take long for the resident gossip to claim the seat directly in front of Sakura and Shino.

Kiba crouches on top of the seat, body facing them. "Alright spill, what's going on?" Shino remains quiet and motionless while Sakura merely raises a brow. "Don't give me that, there's no way nothing happened to make you and Yamanaka change so much over night." His natural grin turned sharp. "Now spill."

Sakura sighs and sags back in her seat. "We haven't changed, this is just us minus the fangirling. Not surprising you think that though, we don't really talk much."

Kiba's nose wrinkles as he thinks. "Guess not." Then he smirks and points at her. "You didn't say that nothing happened. Come on you gotta give me something."

Sakura frowns in contemplation before finally relenting. "On one condition." Kiba nods frantically so she continues. "I get to snuggle Akamaru all day while inside the classroom." She looks down at Akamaru lounging in Kiba's jacket. "If that's alright with you?"

Akamaru barks and Kiba grins. "He's cool with it." He starts fidgeting and waving his hands around. "The suspense is killing me."

Sakura sighs. "Well, the simple version is that I remembered my priorities and realized how crazy I was being. With a little push from Sasuke of course." She finished with a grin.

Kiba lets out a surprised laugh. "Really? What did the asshole say?"

Sakura couldn't contain her giggles. "Oh you know, just being his usual self."

Kiba snickers under his breath. "Then why did you finally realize it now and not earlier?"

Sakura composes herself to say the realization she knew he would love. "Believe it or not, that was the first time he decided to grace us with his voice."

Kiba literally howled with laughter, leaning back and catching himself on his desk before he could fall to the floor. "What? That's amazing!" he spins around to face Sasuke's general area. "Hear that Uchiha? All you have to do is be your normal, charming self and your fangirls will be running for the hills!"

Sakura giggles while standing up to reach for Akamaru. "You're coming with me." She gently pulls him out of the jacket while Kiba is too busy busting up over his new piece of gossip. Akamaru barks in what she assumes is agreement.

She cuddles him until Iruka-sensei comes in to start the class, telling everyone to quiet down. She places him in her lap and pulls out multiple notebooks to review.

Once Iruka-sensei finishes one last lecture they will finally start taking their graduation exams.

Sakura was excited and nervous.

Excited that she will finally be a genin soon.

And nervous about the possibility that the world hates her enough to put her on the same team as Sasuke.

* * *

Sakura released a squeal, surprising the trio waiting for her outside of the academy. "I passed!"

Ino snorts and and smothers her in hugs. "As if there was any doubt."

Chuckling, Sakura leans back. "I barely passed the taijutsu section, I'm convinced that my adorable cuddle buddy gave me good luck."

"What was that about anyway? Kiba was louder than usual." Shikamaru cracks open an eye and looks sideways at her while they walk.

"He just wanted to gossip about what was going on with us." She shrugs. "I got to snuggle Akamaru as payment."

Shikamaru just makes an 'ah' sound while Ino shrugs too.

Choji starts moving faster. "Let's get BBQ to celebrate!"

"Yeah!" They chorus in reply.

* * *

Sakura scoops up a piece of meat before Choji could snatch it. "By the way, Shikamaru, I'll be needing your help in a few days." She says before stuffing the meat in her mouth.

"Oh? Why's that?" He says lazily, placing some more raw meat on the grill.

"Once I know which team I'm on I'll need help brainstorming on what areas I should concentrate on." Sakura switches to eating rice while the meat cooks. "I'm pretty much a blank slate right now, which gives me the chance to learn things around my team's strengths and weaknesses."

"Ah." Shikamaru nods in understanding. "Depending on your team specialization, you'll need to gain certain skills that are related. As well as a secondary that allows you to support your team. Filling out the gaps in the team without being restricted by clan obligation."

Ino pouts. "There's no doubt we'll end up being the next ino-shika-cho combo." She shoves rice into her mouth with unnecessary force. "If we decide to specialize outside of basic ninja skills, it will always be secondary to clan jutsu."

"Huh." Sakura frowns in thought. "Never really thought of clans like that."

Shikamaru nods. "For an example, look at the Hyuga clan. It is very rare for any member of the clan, main or branch, to study outside of their gentle fist style." He sighs in agitation. "Real shame when you realize how good they could be as med-nin."

Sakura nods, lost in thought. That attitude towards other fields of jutsu is very limiting a very dangerous. If an enemy ninja has faced enough Hyuga ninja before in the past, then the Hyuga become moderately more predictable.

And predictability can mean death for even the strongest of ninja.

Choji snatches meat off the grill at lightning speed. "We'll know for sure tomorrow."

Sakura nods and stuffs meat in her mouth.

Sakura and her teammates won't fall into that trap, of arrogance and assuredness that convinces ninja that their skills are unbeatable.

She'll make sure of it.

* * *

As Sakura takes her seat next to Shino, she glances around the room, taking note of all the empty desks and missing people.

About a 3rd of the class failed the exam.

Speaking of someone she thought had failed.

Naruto kicks in the door and raises both fists in the air. "I made it, dattebayo!"

Sakura stared at him slightly dumbfounded. "But he failed yesterday, I swear he did." She glances at Shino. "I'm not imagining this am I?"

"No, Haruno-san." Shino sounded strangely contemplative. "Why? Because everyone else thought he failed."

That just makes Sakura more confused. "Nothing is ever simple when it comes to him."

"Of course not." Said Ino as she spontaneously appeared next to her. "Well this limits what team you're probably on. With your scores you're guaranteed to be on a team with clan kids."

Sakura shrugs. "Probably." Looking over at Shino again, she asks, "Do you think you'll end up with Kiba or Hinata? Your families are assigned together almost as often as the Ino-Shika-Cho formation."

Shino nods. "Possibly both, why? Because it can create formidable tracking teams."

Sakura sighs in resignation. "Which means I'll most likely end up on a team with Sasuke. And probably Naruto now that he passed."

Ino nods in agreement. "A team with both of them on it is almost guaranteed to be an assault squad. "I really hope you're not on it. They're more likely to fight each other over stupid things than complete the mission."

Sakura nodded, if she ended up on that team, she'd be nothing but cannon fodder.

During the time they were talking, Sasuke must have said something to offend Naruto, because now he was now squatting on his desk giving sasuke the stink eye.

All it took was a tap from behind to Push Naruto into a kiss.

Sakura's thoughts stalled before it was like a lightbulb turned on in her brain. "Everything makes so much more sense now." It put so much more context to all of they're interactions.

Ino nodded slowly. "Yeah." she said in wonder. "How could I have been so blind? I'm usually able to spot these things from a mile away."

"Probably denial." As it sunk in, the two boys pulled apart and started gagging. "Pff, who are they trying to fool? Even Naruto has reflexes fast enough to dodge that, Sasuke definitely could have."

Ino chuckled lightly. "This seems like a momentous occasion. I feel a strange urge to congratulate them or something."

"Hmm, we should get them gift baskets." Sakura side eyes Ino. "That wouldn't be too weird right?"

"For them, nothing is too weird."

Iruka-sensei chose that moment to get everyone's' attention. "Alright, sit down, it's time for team assignments." He said while absently nailing a sleeping Shikamaru in the head with a piece of chalk. "Team 1…"

The moment of truth.

It took a few minutes of listening intently, but eventually Iruka-sensei got to the team she least wanted to be on.

"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke…"

Sakura held her breath.

"... and Hyuga Hinata. Your jounin sensei will be Yuhi Kurenai."

Sakura released her breath, taking advantage of the break courtesy of Naruto's loud mouth. She felt intense relief that it wasn't her on that team. At the same time she felt that Hinata was about to get thrown into the deep end. That doesn't even take into account the intense crush she has on Naruto. Everyone knew except the boy himself.

"oof, poor Hinata." Ino cringed in sympathy.

Sakura nods and looks over at her. She was red in the face and looking a little woozy. Probably from a combination of seeing the kiss earlier and then being put on their team. "We should get her a gift basket too, she deserves one."

Ino nods. "And their sensei too. I can't imagine how she'll cope with this."

An unintelligible shout brings their attention back to naruto, who looks about ready to lunge at Sasuke again. What he wanted to do exactly was unclear. Looking over at Hinata shows that she looks ready to faint.

Sakura sighs and rubs her forehead. "Let's make their gift baskets twice as big."

They share a conspiratorial look before looking back toward Iruka-sensei, who had finally gotten Naruto under control.

"Moving on." He said exasperated. "Team 8, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino and Haruno Sakura. Your jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi."

Sakura released a relieved breath she didn't know she was holding. A team with Shino and Kiba had been her first and best choice, but she wasn't sure.

Shino because he has been her desk neighbor for about 2 years and he tolerated her through her fangirl phase.

Kiba because he's a slightly mellower version of Naruto that likes to gossip. And despite how Sakura acted, she didn't actually hate Naruto, it was mostly a desperate act to get Sasuke to notice her.

Though he does have an insane ability to ignite her temper.

Sakura has high hopes for her team. While she didn't interact with them much, they got along fine when they did decide to.

Ino walks back to sit with Shikamaru and Choji. There's no doubt they'll be on the same team, Iruka-sensei's confirmation is unnecessary.

She looks to the side and grins at Shino, who nods in acknowledgment. Looking down a few rows she sees Kiba already grinning at them too, Akamaru gives a happy yip.

They'll be great.

Sakura can feel it in her bones. In the core of her very being.

All they needed to do now was eat lunch and see what kind of sensei they got.


	4. Chapter 4

**This story is based on Naruto written by Masashi Kishimoto**

 **A/N: Thanks for all the reviews. My update schedule will not be consistent so don't worry when a chapter hasn't come out in a while i'm just taking longer to write it. And to answer the question of why a Hyuga would be a good medic. I didn't really think of it in the context of their eyes. They need a certain level of chakra control to use gentle fist effectively right? And neji was able to break out of that sticky web cocoon because he could expel chakra through every chakra point in his body which probably took a lot of control, which is something you need to be good at for medical ninjutsu. Those were my thoughts.**

 **I hope you enjoy this longer chapter :)**

* * *

Sakura glanced around the room, many of the previous occupants had already been picked up by their sensei. This included Ino and her team being picked up by a jounin with a goatee, and Hinata's being picked up by a jounin with black hair and a unique dress.

The last team besides her own just left with their sensei. she wondered when this Hatake Kakashi would finally show his face. Deciding it might be awhile before he gets here, she pulls out her bento.

The movement caught Kiba's attention. "Do you really think that's a good idea? What if he comes before you finish and steals the rest of your food?"

Sakura pauses, would their sensei really bother stealing their food? jounin are known to have weird eccentricities, so maybe?

She shrugs her shoulders. "Only part of it is better than nothing, I want as much energy as I can get for whatever he has planned for us." She glances out the window to see if she can spot an approaching figure. "Besides, if he's this late already, I'm sure I can finish before he gets here."

Kiba shrugged helplessly and pulled out a few protein bars. While he munched on his food, Shino pulled out his own bento without comment.

Sakura was soon proven right after another hour of waiting and no jounin in sight, their lunch long since finished.

Kiba released an irritated sigh before climbing onto his desk and sitting down, his legs crossed. After a moment of Sakura and Shino staring at him blankly he pouted. "If we're going to be a team we have to tell each other about ourselves."

Sakura blinks, visibly confused, she asks, "What do you mean? We've been in the same class for years. We already know at least some stuff about each other." She looks back and forth between Kiba and Shino. "Right?"

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Doubtful, why? I have kept mostly to myself."

Sakura sagged in defeat, that was also true for her. Having spent most of her time around Ino, even when they were on bad terms.

Kiba continued. "Do you know anything about the Inuzuka clan?" They both nodded. "Then you know how bonds are a big deal for us. Others have described it as a pack bond, but it's not really like that." Kiba thought of how to phrase it for a moment. "It's like a less intense version of it. Behaviors tend to rub off on us from our ninken partners." Kiba gave a light scratch to a napping Akamaru.

After a moment of silence Sakura decides to ask, "So pack would normally be family and close friends?"

Kiba scratches his head in thought. "Yeah you could put it that way. The main things to keep in mind are that we don't live and breathe for the pack, but to say we care deeply is an understatement." He gave Sakura and Shino a pointed look. "For an Inuzuka, their genin team is family."

Sakura frowned in thought. "I see your point." Then she grins at them. "There's no rush so might as well start with the basics. What are your favorite colors?"

* * *

Kakashi took his time as he made his way to pick up the genin hopefuls.

He had just finished visiting all of their homes with the Hokage. Probably in an attempt to endear them to him. At least he got free food out of it, courtesy of the Haruno household.

Kakashi slowly walked towards the classroom door, hoping to make them wait a few extra seconds.

He slid the door open and was promptly met with a piece of chalk flying toward his face.

Reacting on instinct, Kakashi snatched the chalk out of the air. He lowered his hand and took in the frozen expressions on his students faces. They were a mixture of horror, surprise, amusement, and disbelief. Though the glasses and jacket make it harder to spot on The Aburame.

He wonders how much better their expressions would have been, had he let the chalk hit him in the face or something like that.

Taking in their positions, he notes that they are spread out in a sort of triangle. Haruno is the furthest from him with her arm outstretched towards Inuzuka, who happens to be the closest to Kakashi and the door. Inuzuka has a hand up as well. Aburame is standing to the right of the entrance, visibly tense.

All three of them snap out of there shock and Haruno quickly shouts, "Sensei! I'm so sorry, I wasn't aware you had arrived."

He shrugs. "Mah, it's no big deal." He glances over at Inuzuka. "Though you should probably work on your reflexes."

Predictably, the boy's face reddens and he starts growling in indignation. Kakashi tosses the chalk back into the room absentmindedly. "Meet me on the roof in 30 seconds." As soon as the words are out of his mouth he shushins up to the roof.

Kakashi giggled to himself quietly. That was a unique first impression.

It wasn't long before all three of them came tumbling onto the roof. All in various states of disarray.

"Mah, Mah, no need to run over each other." Kakashi gave them an eye crinkle as they all took a seat in front of him. They gave him an incredulous glare, but wisely said nothing. "Why don't you introduce yourselves? So we can get to know each other better."

Shino is the first to speak. "You should go first, why? How else are we to know your expectations?"

Well, Kakashi couldn't really argue with that. "Alright, I'm Hatake Kakashi, Kakashi-sensei to you. I like plenty of things, some of which are too mature for your ears." Haruno's eyes widen, looking suitably scandalized. Inuzuka looks confused for a second before realization strikes. Thanks to the jacket and sunglasses all he can see is the erratic twitching of Aburame's eyebrow.

Giggling on the inside, Kakashi continues, "I dislike some things, hmm, I have plenty of hobbies, every ninja should have some. Dreams for the future, hmm." At his pause they all lean forward as if it would help them hear his words clearly. "A doggie door that won't just let intruders into my house."

All three of them slumped in disappointment simultaneously. Genin are always so cute.

"Alright you next!"

All of them took a few moments to think of their answers.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba! I like Akamaru, Ma, Sis and pranking. I dislike it when merchants give Akamaru dirty looks, as if he would steal any of their food." He huffs before continuing, "My Hobbies are pranking, listening to Ma and Sis gossip, and training. My dream is for me and Akamaru to become the best Ninken/Ninja duo in the entire clan."

"I'm Haruno Sakura. I like hanging out with Ino and reading. I dislike being rudely interrupted and bullies. My Hobbies are studying plants, playing shogi, studying the scrolls in the library and practicing chakra control exercises. My dream is…" A pause. "To become someone others can depend on."

"I am Aburame Shino. I enjoy maintaining my different insect colonies and cooking with father. I dislike noise and unnecessary killing of insects. My hobbies are studying my clan's scrolls, cooking, and documenting different insects I see. My dream is to become a medical ninja and use my colony of kikaichu to heal from a distance."

Haruno perks up at that. "Like what Lady Tsunade does with her slug summons?"

Aburame merely nods.

Well, Kakashi thinks, those are certainly unique dreams.

"Now, with that out of the way, tomorrow meet at training ground 3 at 0600, bright and early for survival training."

Cue the confused faces. Haruno voices their shared thought, "Why have survival training first?"

Kakashi crinkles his eye, "Contrary to what you thought, your testing isn't over yet."

Horror dawned on all of them.

Kiba stood up and shouted, "There's more testing!? I thought we were done!"

Kakashi decided to start explaining. "After you graduate you are assigned a jounin sensei to give you a final test of their choosing. Whether you pass or fail is also up to your sensei. You should be expecting a test with a 60-70% fail rate."

He jumps up onto the rail behind him. "Don't forget, 0600 training ground 3. And don't bother eating breakfast, you'll just throw it up later." with a cheery wave he takes a swan dive backwards and out of sight.

It'll be entertaining while it lasts.

* * *

All three of them just stare at the railing where their weird sensei was seconds ago.

Shino clears his throat. "We should go to the tea shop nearby, why? To continue our discussion from earlier."

The other two nod in a daze before snapping back to reality.

They walk back inside and make their way down the stairs. Sakura turns her head towards them. "Do you guys want to continue the chakra control exercise from earlier too? It was good practice." She wondered if they could hear the hopefulness in her voice.

Kiba nods. "Yeah it was fun, way better than that boring leaf exercise. This time we can use a rock instead of chalk."

Shino nods in agreement and they continue on to the tea shop.

From their earlier conversation they learned that each of them couldn't really decide on a favorite color. But in a strange coincidence they had the same top 3.

Blue, green, and purple.

It's not much but it's a start.

* * *

Kiba woke up groggily the next morning before shocking himself awake when he remembered where he needed to be soon.

He rushes to get dressed and ran downstairs to the kitchen.

He obviously remembered what his sensei said earlier and he has, in fact, puked before after some intense training.

But, as Ma always says, some food to build energy that you may throw up later is better than none at all.

The odds the others decided to listen to their sensei even though they know it's a bad idea, is pretty high. On that note he grabs a few ration bars and some apples before running out of the house and down the street. With Ma's voice echoing down the street after him saying, "Knock 'em dead brat!"

He jogs all the way to the training ground to warm up a little.

Coming up to the training ground he crosses over a red bridge before seeing his team up ahead. Sakura is leaning against a tree with her legs crossed in a meditative stance, eyes closed with a scroll open in front of her.

Shino is sitting at the next tree over, actively reading a scroll. As opposed to what Sakura appears to be doing.

Kiba nods to Shino before sitting across from Sakura. With a grin he snaps her out of her thoughts. "You do realize you need to have your eyes open to read right?"

To her credit the only movements that revealed her shock were the widening of her eyes, and lifting her hands as if to smack him in the face.

Once she really noticed him she calmed down before pouting at. "Don't startle me like that."

Kiba just grinned. "Gotta keep you on your toes." He looks back down at the scroll. "What are you doing anyway."

Sakura looks at the scroll too. "Oh, right. Meditating after I read helps me memorize the information faster, and I almost never forget anything this way."

Kiba sits down between them. "Whoa." He looks over at Shino and his scroll. "Do you do that too?"

"I usually read before bed for a similar effect." It's hard to tell if he glanced up from his scroll. "Why? So that I can use sleep for more than just rest."

"Whoa, you guys are intense." Remembering the bag of food he brought, he dug out a ration bar and apple for each of them. "Here, I have a feeling neither of you ate. Some energy now is better than nothing."

Just as he thought, Sakura laughs in embarrassment before accepting the food. "Thanks Kiba."

Shino nods. "I had brought some rations for later on, why? I though eating food now wouldn't be worth the risk." Despite his words Shino also accepted the food.

Finally Kiba pulled some of Akamaru's favored food out. Said puppy, having smelled it, decided to finally wake up and crawl out of Kiba's jacket to eat his breakfast.

They all sat there quietly, eating their makeshift breakfast in peace.

Once finished, Kiba stands up and puts the leftover trash back in the bag. Sakura and Shino follow suit.

"Want to continue the exercise from yesterday? Just for a small warm up."

Sakura grins as both her and Shino roll up their scrolls and put them away in their pouches. "Sure, only for a few minutes though." She starts some light stretches. "We don't want to have chakra exhaustion before Kakashi-sensei even gets here."

A nod of agreement and they move into a triangle formation.

Kiba pulls out a small rock and tosses it towards Shino. Hand out with his palm facing Kiba, Shino concentrates on the amount of chakra he thinks appropriate to put in his hand. The rock finishes it's arch and hits Shino's palm. It sticks for a single second before falling and Shino catches it normally with his other hand.

They continue the process for a few more minutes. Sakura is the only one capable of making it stick for longer than a second, and that caps out at around 3 seconds.

Only once they feel they have used enough of their chakra, do they stop.

After that, it takes about 30 minutes of waiting for Kiba's patience to run out. The other two don't look very surprised.

"Is he going to be doing the same shit everyday? It shouldn't be possible for someone to be this late! What could he be doing?" He ruffles his own hair in agitation and Akamaru barks in agreement.

Shino stands back up and stretches. "I am not surprised, why? Because Father informed me that Kakashi-sensei is notoriously late and lazy."

All Sakura can do is sigh in resignation.

Kiba sighs along with her. Looks like they would have to figure out how to pass the time.

"Wanna see who can hold a handstand the longest?"

* * *

3 hours later they're still thinking of things to do to pass the time. They have been sticking to things that won't exhaust them before their sensei can get there.

Because of this they have mainly been sticking to balance and flexibility.

Shino being the best at balance so far and Kiba being the most flexible. Though all three of them are close and Sakura comes in second in both categories. They differ in tiny margins, but a tiny edge is all it takes to win.

Kiba finally drops from what seems like his 20th handstand. Sakura only seconds behind him followed by Shino.

Kiba stretches before scratching his cheek. "Geez Shino how are you doing that?"

Shino shrugs and tries to limber up for their flexibility round. "It is and unintended side effect of my Kikaichu, why? Because their presence makes me slightly more aware of my body and its position, even after years of getting used to them."

Sakura looks at Shino with what seems to be amazement before looking at Kiba. "What about you?"

Kiba frowned in thought. "I guess Inuzuka need to have a certain amount of flexibility to use the clan jutsu."

Sakura hums in thought as they all finish up their stretching.

The criteria for this round is how fast and how deep they can do the splits.

They do them one at a time. Shino ends up being the slowest, though he's around the same depth, maybe off by a centimeter or two.

Sakura and Kiba are tied for speed but Kiba ends up a centimeter deeper.

They ponder for a moment, thinking about what they could do next.

Sakura snaps her fingers. "How about we do continuous cartwheels to see who can last the longest before they get dizzy? We haven't done that yet."

The others agree and all three of them line up. Giving each other enough space so as to avoid a kick to the face.

Kiba counts them down, "3...2...1 go!"

And as they're mid cartwheel with their hands already on the ground, they hear a, "yo!" From behind them.

All three of them stop in their surprise, and they end up in heaps on the ground.

Kiba and Sakura jump up first, and almost in unison shout, "You're late!"

Shino isn't far behind, his eyebrows twitching up a storm as he stares their sensei down. He chooses to seeth inwardly.

Standing in front of them is their, very late, Kakashi-sensei. "Ma, ma is that how you should be greeting your precious sensei?"

They just continue to stare angrily. Even Akamaru growls a tiny bit.

Kakashi just chuckles and doesn't bother with an excuse. "Well I guess I should explain the test."

They drop their glares and listen attentively.

"This is what I like to call the bell test." He pulls two bells out of his pocket. "The objective is to take a bell from me." He then reaches into his pouch and pulls out a small alarm clock. "You have until the alarm goes off at noon." He sets the clock down on a post next to him.

The genin look up at the sun and Sakura exclaims, "But it's already almost 10!"

Kakashi's eye crinkles. "Well, than we better get started." He ties the bells to his waist. "Come at me with the intent to kill, otherwise you won't succeed. And those that fail will be sent back to the academy."

They all look dumbfounded for a second before Kakashi interrupts their thoughts. "Start!"

All three scatter and Kakashi randomly picks one to follow.

* * *

Kiba lands on a branch and immediately takes off for his closest teammate.

There is no way any of them can beat or trick a jounin on their own.

And while the fact that there are only two bells worries him a little, it doesn't really matter to him much.

Inuzuka spend most of their life looking forward to their genin team. The fact that all Konoha genin teams are 3 man cells is very well known.

The closest sent happens to be Shino.

Kiba lands down beside Shino who didn't seem at all surprised to see him.

"Come on, we need to find Sakura."

Shino nods and points slightly to the left of where they came from. "Both of them are over there, how do I know this? I planted female Kikaichu on everyone for my male Kikaichu to track."

Kiba nods relieved. While he has a good sense of smell and can follow a trail, he can't pinpoint an exact location if they are too far away. And his range isn't that far yet.

They start making their way towards Sakura, and Kiba wonders why Shino hasn't bothered to bring up the bells.

Though now that he thinks about it both Sakura and Shino had some of the highest test scores in their class. They probably realized that, jounin or not, he wouldn't be able to fail just one of them. It was all or nothing.

Shino glances to the right quickly. "Kakashi-sensei is moving back towards our starting position while Sakura has remained stationary, why? Because their confrontation is over and she is possibly incapacitated."

They arrive at Sakura's position and the curiosity and slight worry Kiba was feeling evaporated. He tried very hard to contain his giggles, but ultimately failed.

Sakura just pouts up at them, cheeks puffed out in indignation and buried neck deep in the ground. "It's not funny."

Kiba just keeps giggling as he and Akamaru start digging her out. "Yeah, it is."

Sakura's glare morphs into a look of betrayal when she hears Shino cough into his fist. It's the most amusement he's shown them openly. "Not you too Shino!"

Shino clears his throat. "My apologies, Sakura-san." And for once, he leaves it at that.

Sakura and Kiba stare in amazement, even Akamaru pauses in his digging to stare. They choose not to mention it.

Sakura smiles lopsidedly and Kiba resumes digging. "Just Sakura is fine, we're gonna be teammates after all. And we haven't been calling you Shino-san."

Kiba nods. "Yeah just call me Kiba." He grins to himself as he finally gets one of Sakura's arms free. "Maybe we'll even give each other codenames."

Sakura sniffs and pulls another arm free. "As long as it's not something stupid or obvious." She starts shimmying her way out of the hole.

Kiba smirks. "Then I guess Pinky, bug boy and dog boy are out of the question."

Sakura brushes off her clothes. "Damn straight."

Shino interrupts quickly. "Lets save code names for later, Kakashi-sensei is moving again."

"Let's brainstorm a plan on the way."

They all nod in agreement and try their best to slowly and quietly make their way towards Kakashi.

Sakura starts. "For abilities, I have above average chakra control, and you've both seen my skill in acrobatics."

Kiba nods. "I'm pretty decent at some clan jutsu. Akamaru and I can keep up Fang over Fang for 5 seconds." He takes a brief moment to explain before they move on.

"Other than tracking and information gathering, my Kikaichu are able to drain a person of their chakra." Shino lets a few out to show them. "And if there are enough of them, they can lift small objects."

"Akamaru and I can be the distraction."

"I can attempt to subdue Kakashi-sensei and retrieve the bells."

"I'll try to bring Kakashi-sensei to you Shino."

Curious, Kiba asks, "You sure?"

Sakura nods with a grin. "I'm stronger than I look."

* * *

Kiba doesn't bother trying to hide and just walks cautiously into the clearing. Kakashi hadn't moved from here since leaving Sakura.

And according to her that whole exchange was a genjutsu that she was able to break out of and a very short taijutsu match. She didn't mention what the genjutsu was though.

Kiba looked at Kakashi and mentally facepalmed.

He was just standing there relaxed and reading the perverted book that Ma and Sis hate with a passion.

Kiba tried to shake it off and stick to the plan, distraction. "Hey! You pervert! The hell do you think you're doing reading at a time like this!"

Kakashi glances up half-heartedly. "I don't need both of my hands to take you down."

Kiba doesn't even have to force his growl. Akamaru jumps out of his jacket and they both get into ready stances.

Kakashi gives his attention back to his book and Kiba charges.

Claws extended, he runs low to the ground and swipes at Kakashi's ankle. Allowing Akamaru to use Kiba's back as a springboard into Kakashi's face. Kiba spins around him and claws at his back.

He thought he had landed the hit for a second before, in a poof, a log was in Kakashi's place.

Kiba and Akamaru started to sniff the air. Akamaru found him first and started barking at a tree.

Kiba threw a handful of shuriken at the tree and hoped they got close.

Kakashi casually hoped out of the tree, book still in hand, and the previously thrown shuriken on the index finger of his other hand.

"Looks like you found me." With a flick of the finger Kakashi launches them back at Kiba.

Kiba barely dodges in time and jumps back at him again.

They continue like this for a while. Kiba trying his best to get Kakashi into position, and Kakashi infuriating him at every turn.

And then he's finally in position.

Kiba and Akamaru jumped back and crouched in a ready position.

"Fang over Fang." They flew at his legs, spinning so fast they looked like twin cyclones.

It wouldn't last long, but they didn't need it to.

At the same time Kiba shouted, Sakura launched herself from the tree she was waiting in. Kakashi, being slightly preoccupied, didn't immediately notice her or Shino, Who also appeared a distance behind him.

Sakura reached Kakashi at the same time Kiba and Akamaru did.

She plants both of her hands on Kakashi's shoulders in a sort of handstand. She grips onto his flack jacket and the rest of her body continues it's trajectory.

Due to Kiba and Akamaru, Kakashi Jumps up to avoid them. They fly past, canceling the technique.

Sakura, close to landing and now facing Shino, tightens her grip. As soon as her feet touch the ground she braces herself and uses every ounce of strength she has, using her arms and bodyweight she launches Kakashi at Shino with a shout. It's just barely enough.

Shino braces for the impending collision. As Kakashi slams into him a cloud of insects explode from where Shino had just been. An insect clone.

But as they cocoon around him, Kakashi poofs into a log. Another Substitution jutsu.

With an angry shout Kiba and Akamaru frantically sniff out his location.

Sakura readies herself and tries to come up with a better plan B than their original, 'Let's just wing it.'

Shino sends a wave of Kikaichu at Kakashi's discovered hiding place.

The alarm clock still sitting on the post starts ringing.

The genin stand as still as statues for a few tense moments.

Surprisingly, it's Shino who finally breaks the silence with a choked sound that could have come from a dying animal, before sitting down heavily.

Sakura and Kiba both deflate and Akamaru whimpers softly. In almost eerie unison, they walk towards Shino in a daze and sit down, creating a sort of huddle.

With a sudden poof Kakashi was in front of them. "Well, that was something. For a minute there I didn't think you guys were going to make a serious attempt."

Snapped out of their daze, Sakura and Kiba grab onto Shino and Akamaru crawls back into Kiba's jacket, head sticking out of the top. Shino doesn't try to shake them off.

All four of them look up at Kakashi with sad and pleading puppy eyes, one of them being an actual puppy.

Kakashi stood frozen before flailing his hands a little. "Mah, don't look at me like that, I haven't even gotten to my explanation yet."

Their pleading stare seemed to intensify, their eyes watering ever so slightly.

And that was checkmate for Kakashi. Puppy eyes? Fine Pakun uses them all the time. Tears? No way, he was not qualified.

"Alright, you passed! I was going to draw this out a little more but you passed! Okay?"

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Sakura fist pumped and let out a yell that sounded kind of like, 'We did it!'. Kiba fell back with a relieved shout, and Shino deflated with a sigh.

Kakashi sits down in front of them. "Now." They all contain their excitement and give him their attention. "It was a decent plan in your circumstances."

Before they can get too excited he continues. "But there were plenty of flaw. The bulk of your plan relied on Kiba and his ability to corral me. It ultimately worked out, but I could have easily overwhelmed him."

"With that, if you had more time to regroup and try again or had come up with something else, you might have gotten the bells." Kakashi shrugs. "But time isn't always on your side."

"But we still passed?" Sakura asks, and all of them are as equally confused.

"Yep." Kakashi said cheerfully. "The bells weren't the point of the test. The point was to test your teamwork and your willingness to work together."

Sakura blinks. "Oh, well Iruka-sensei always talked about how three man cells were important to teamwork. So I didn't really give the number of bells much thought? I figured it was just a distraction or something."

Shino nods in agreement. "Going after the bells alone would have been foolish, and a two man cell would be less effective."

Kiba nods along. "Yeah that'd be dumb."

Kakashi slumps forward in disbelief. "Well, I'm glad you realized this so early, my genin team... wasn't so lucky."

Confused, the genin waited for him to continue. He didn't really want to but felt they needed to hear it. "You know the K.I.A and M.I.A monument not far from here?" They nodded, worried. "The rest of my team Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin and Namikaze Minato are all on that stone."

The genin look suitably stricken. "Obito was the first and I learned the most important lesson from him that day." Kakashi had their full attention.

"Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."

Those words hit them hard, especially after Sakura and Shino understand What Kiba said about their team being a pack and what that means in a basic sense.

Though hearing the gravity in Kakashi's voice makes them think they don't understand enough.

Kakashi claps his hands and says cheerfully. "But, like I said, you guys are off to a much better start."

There's a sniffle and all of a sudden Kakashi has an armful of teary eyed students. The exact situation Kakashi wanted to avoid not even a few minutes ago.

All he could think to do was pat their backs and hope they calm down.

After a while they do.

Kiba rubs his face a little. "Hey Shino, why'd you stop asking those rhetorical questions when you talk?"

Shino clears his throat. "This is how I talk normally. I tend to speak strangely to keep others at a distance until they have proven themselves tolerable. A sort of screening process." He shrugs. "Seeing as you are now my teammates and I have deemed you tolerable, this is how I will talk amongst ourselves."

They both stare at him wide eyed and Kiba asks, "So you've been hazing us for like 6 years?"

At his nod Sakura dramatically grabs Kakashi. "Save us Kakashi-sensei! Shino is a Master of the long con."

Kakashi pats her on the head and chuckles. "Impressive my cute student, but you have much to learn."

He reaches into his pouch and pulls out a certain book, flipping it open to a random page, he turns it towards them.

Instead of the lewd pictures they had been expecting they are faced with the picture of an Iwa nin and his stats. He keeps a bingo book disguised as porn in his pouch.

With a whale Sakura flops onto her back. "Not you too sensei!"

Kiba looks at the book, amazed. "That's so cool!"

Kakashi scratches his head sheepishly. "Ah well, I still have the actual copies at home, it wouldn't do to bring those around with me. They might get shredded and then where would I be?"

All three of them groan in disappointment. "I knew it."

"I thought you were cool for a second there."

"I see, the best deceptions have a hint of the truth."

Kakashi just giggled and ruffled their hair, listening to their indignant squawks.

His genin were so cute.


	5. Chapter 5

**This story is based on Naruto written by Masashi Kishimoto.**

 **A/N: thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. The story is going to pick up alot after this chapter, training, missions and bonding mostly. Don't want to give it all away so I hope y** **ou enjoy :)**

* * *

After a few minutes, Kakashi is able to pull away from their impromptu cuddle session. Standing up he stretches. "Well, that's it for today. Make sure to meet here at 0800 tomorrow?"

All three look up at him, bewildered, then Sakura's face lights up in some sort of realization. "That's right, I wanted to take you guys with me to the Nara compound. Do you guys want to come and celebrate with the newly formed team 10?"

She looked at all of them, including Kakashi. He really had no idea why she was asking him, of all people, to go to a Nara dinner party.

Shino nodded first and lifted a hand, a few insects flew away. "I have sent my Kikaichu to inform my father. Our celebration plans are scheduled for tomorrow already."

Kiba nods wearily, scratching his head. "Sure, I guess, as long as Ino isn't loud. Her yelling hurts my ears."

Sakura stares at him incredulously. "That's why you never came around that much? Ear sensitivity?" She looks about ready to slap herself in the face. "Huh, I thought we annoyed you or something, why didn't I think of that?"

Kiba looks visibly nervous now. "Ah, well, it's not like we had much in common and the times you guys wore perfume killed my nose." Sweating now. "And that whole Sasuke situation was annoying, actually."

Sakura just stared with her arms crossed. "You done yet?"

"Yeah, that's all, I swear." He held his hands up placatingly.

Kakashi took a discreet sniff and was thankful that there wasn't any traces of perfume. He won't have to emphasize, no perfume, too much in their training then.

Sakura trained her eyes back onto Kakashi. "Can you come with us? please, Kakashi-sensei?"

The other two sent him pleading gazes soon after.

You'd think that Pakkun would have desensitized him to puppy dog eyes by now.

"Alright fine." Shoving his hands in his pockets. "Why am I going?"

"Well I figured going as a team would be fun." Her triumphant grin was blinding. "And I asked if Shikamaru and his dad would help us with brainstorming for our specialties."

Well, someone's certainly ambitious. "As long as you remember that the basics take priority. Until chunin, your specialty will be secondary and mostly in your own time." He starts walking towards the market, his genin following closely. "We'll talk about that more when we meet tomorrow. For now we should get a peace offering."

"Peace offering?"

"That's right, if we're going to convince Shikaku to help we'll need one." He grinned under his mask. "Lucky for you, I know his favorite sake that we can bribe him with."

Sakura and Kiba cheered and started talking excitedly with Shino.

They leisurely made their way to a stand to buy the aforementioned sake.

* * *

Sake in hand, Kakashi and his newly acquired students make their way to the Nara compound.

He took this time to ponder over what specialties they might want.

Shino has already expressed the desire to pair up his clan jutsu with medical ninjutsu. First aid and basic medical ninjutsu for field emergencies was already in their training rough draft, so that would benefit Shino.

After Kakashi sees what else they can do and what they say at dinner, he'll revise the draft accordingly.

Kiba would probably do well with incorporating weapons and traps into his clan jutsu. His chakra levels also show his potential to have a ninjutsu specialty.

Weapons training and discovering their elements is also included in the schedule.

Sakura, from her demonstration today, seems to have potential as a taijutsu specialist. But this one will have to wait till after tonight's talk to really narrow down. For right now she's a blank slate.

And as for right now, who to train as the future leader and/or strategist is up in the air. All three have the potential.

Their arrival to the Nara compound takes him out of his musings.

Sakura knocks on the door before stepping back in line with her teammates.

After a few moments, the young Nara Kakashi had seen in the files from when they were assigning teams, opens the door.

He leaned lazily against the doorway. "Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hatake-san." Nodding his head in acknowledgment to each person as he greeted them.

His cute minions greeted him in kind with a jumble of, "Shikamaru", "Shikamaru-san" and "Shika." Which is fine, they don't have to be in sync just yet.

Kakashi prayed to himself that they could accomplish it for their first mission debrief. The look on Hokage-sama's face will be worth it.

He raised a hand and waved slightly at the now named Shikamaru. "Yo."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him before shrugging and walking back inside. "Everyone's out back already."

Stopping briefly to take off their shoes, they follow him through the house and out to their backyard. Which is just the land between the house and the start of the Nara forest.

In the yard they have a long table set up where the rest of them have already started eating. This included the clan heads for the Nara, Akimichi, and Yamanaka clans with their families. This included the newly formed team 10 and their sensei Sarutobi Asuma.

Asuma waved from his seat. "Kakashi!" He took a glance at the kids in front of him. "You finally passed a team."

Kakashi's slouch became a little more prominent. "Ma, don't look so surprised."

Asuma shrugged. "It was bound to happen eventually I guess." His eyes widened suddenly. "Damnit Kakashi, do you realize how many bets i just lost because of you?"

Kakashi chuckled at his misfortune. "Your faith in my cute students is heartwarming."

Meanwhile Sakura, Shino and Kiba have sat down with the others and started to eat.

Ino waved her chopsticks at them. "So what was your test like? Asuma-sensei just had us do some information gathering on random jounin."

As his students explained their test he walked over to the other side of the table. Presenting the sake, Kakashi greeted the host. "Shikaku-sama, thank you for inviting us." He topped it off with an eye smile.

Shikaku leveled a knowing stare at him before accepting the sake. "Ask whatever it is you want later, for now go eat." He waved dismissively over to an empty seat.

Not bothering to deny his assumption, Kakashi cheerfully turns toward the food.

Over the next hour or so he just sits there and listens to the conversations going around, adding in a few things here and there while he eats.

It's the most social he's been in a long time.

* * *

Sakura shares a knowing look with Shikamaru and Shino as Kiba dramatically reenacts their bell test from earlier, Ino and Choji giving him their full and rapt attention.

While Sakura isn't stoic by any stretch, she's not on Kiba, Ino, or even Naruto's level of energy.

Out of their classmates, those three were the most rambunctious.

"So." Sakura turns her head to face Shikamaru when he started talking. "Have you had time to talk about your team or individual specialties yet?"

Sakura shook her head. "Not really, Shino wants to be a med-nin and Kiba said he was interested in ninjutsu and more weapons training to go with his clan jutsu." She nodded to both of her teammates in turn. "But Kakashi-sensei hasn't talked about our team specialization yet."

Shino leaned towards them slightly. "With Kiba and I on the team it is most likely tracking, like I mentioned before the teams were picked." His brows furrowed slightly at the top of his glasses. "Although if that was the case, Hinata-san would have been included."

Sakura frowned slightly. "Maybe we're something else?" How would she be helpful on a team that would have been better off with someone else?

Shikamaru shrugged. "Guess we'll figure it out later." He glanced over at his dad. "Seems like we'll be talking about it with them anyway, he brought Dad's favorite."

Sakura nodded in mock seriousness. "Kakashi-sensei said it was the best way to bribe him into spilling his secrets."

Shino continued gravely, "Better than any interrogation method known to man."

Shikamaru cracked a grin and chuckled at their antics.

They turned their attention back to the rest of the group in time to hear Ino giving her own reenactment.

They would figure it out later, right now it was time to relax.

* * *

Shino reflected on his teammates while they gathered around the Nara family's living room.

At first he had been worried about what team he would be put on. Not being the most social, he never made friends at the academy.

Sakura was the closest he came to an acquaintance.

So when she and Kiba were announced as his teammates he was slightly relieved, but still worried.

But in the matter of a day and a half, both of them went from people he knew to friends.

While waiting for their sensei and eating food together later, they got to know each other. Shino now knows that Kiba not only likes to gossip at home and the academy, but also with those in the village, shinobi and civilian alike. He practically had his own spy network.

Shino also knows that Sakura doesn't limit herself in her reading. She reads anything that catches her eye, chakra control, genjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, ciphers and code breaking, domestic and foreign trade, facts and stories about other villages, medical and poisonous plants, animals, summons. She'll read anything.

But her favorites are always fictional books. When she's not reading up on the current trade in Kumo, she's reading about a group of friends that do everything together and their adventures.

Sakura's favorite food is her mom's miso soup and vegetable tempura. Kiba's is sushi of any kind or variety.

All of them like fall and winter the best.

Kiba knows how to cut and style hair for his mom and sister. Sakura knows all the tricks and trade of her parents merchant job, this involves making and selling most of their products.

And in turn they know that Shino's favorite foods are dumplings and onigiri, he spends time with insects more than he does people, and he knows how to cook most things.

And all three of them like the same colors. Blue, green and purple.

None of them know much about Kakashi-sensei yet but they'll fix that.

Shino will do his best to commit everything he knows about them to memory.

Because for the first time since Torune-nii disappeared.

He had friends.

* * *

Shikaku watched everybody as they spread out around the room. The kids sat close together, Ino and Sakura in the middle with their teammates on either side. All of them seemed to get along well.

It was nice to see Ino-chan and Saku-chan were friends again. When they were younger Ino and Sakura would come here to play with the boys all the time. After their falling out it was just Ino, and while they still played here, it wasn't the same.

Looking to his right he spotted Asume chuckling at something choji said. He seems like his usual self, maybe a little extra worry for his new students added to the mix.

To the left he saw Kakashi lounging on his side, idly flipping the pages in his book. He also seemed like his usual self. Strange, seeing as he never wanted his own team, he looks more relaxed than Shikaku expected.

While not a lot of people could tell the difference between relaxed Kakashi and tense Kakashi, Shikaku knew better.

Oh well, might as well start the discussion.

"What did you want to ask about?" He took a sip from his sake and waited.

Kakashi hummed as he turned a page. "The munchkins wanted some opinions on their individual specialties."

They're certainly thinking ahead. "Tracking team, I assume?" At Kakashi's nod he continued. "Have you thought about their team roles? The boys will probably use their clan jutsu for that, Sakura will have to learn a tracking skill that the other two don't cover." He took another sip. "That should narrow down what they want to do as individuals."

Kakashi nodded. "Her file shows an above average chakra control so I would choose making her the sensor of the team. Shino has expressed his wish to be a med-nin." He turns a page. "So that leaves Kiba and Sakura's individual specialties."

Shikaku hummed, that means Shino will be the long range fighter and support of the team with the combo of Aburame clan insects and medical ninjutsu. Kiba's clan jutsu by itself makes him a short to mid range fighter since its heavily taijutsu based. Sakura seems to be the mystery.

Shikaku waved to get the children's attention and they focused on him. "Alright so you're a tracking team, Shino and Kiba will contribute with their clan jutsu and Sakura will be the team chakra sensor."

At this news Sakura's shoulders drooped in relief. Seems like she had been worrying about her team role. "Shino wants to be the team medic, what about the rest of you?"

Kiba spoke up first. "It would be pretty cool if I could learn ninjutsu and some weapons to go with my clan training."

Kakashi nodded in thought. "I had planned to take you to the market and have you pick out at least one weapon each to learn. So it wouldn't be a stretch for you to pick out a few more while we're there." He closed and put away his book. "Bukijutsu specialists usually learn how to use 10 or more different weapons but since you're still a genin i'll cap you at 3 for now. And all of you will be learning ninjutsu too so that's covered."

Kiba nods in acceptance, seemingly satisfied.

Sakura speaks up nervously, "Iruka-sensei said I was a genjutsu type but those are generally long ranged right? I want to do something with a lot of versatility. If Kiba or Shino or both need back up, I want to be able to help in the way they need."

Shikaku finished off his bottle as he thought. While genjutsu isn't strictly long range he could see what she meant. It is notoriously used for ambushes and the like, mostly used from a distance.

Taijutsu and kenjutsu are almost always short range. Shurikenjutsu is mostly long range and very common. Bukijutsu and ninjutsu are pretty versatile but that doesn't seem to be what she's going for.

Kakashi interrupts his thoughts. "There's always fuinjutsu." After he said that Kakashi tensed subtly.

It's not widely known that Kakashi learned sealing from the 4th before he died, he doesn't like to talk about it. So Shikaku didn't really consider it an option.

Now that he mentioned it though.

"That works."

Sakura lite up in realization. "Of course!"

Kiba looked dubious. "You can make exploding tags and storage scrolls your specialty?"

She gives him a smack to the back of the head in reprimand. "That's not all it is. For every jutsu there is a seal to match, because you can use seals to prep jutsu beforehand like say you want to be able to use a fire jutsu later but you don't want to waste a lot of chakra, you could store the jutsu into a scroll and use it later."

Kakashi eye smiled at them. "That's right, you can store objects, beings and chakra into seals. You could also make seal traps, drain others chakra, privacy seals, amplify your own chakra with them, really anything you can think of."

Kakashi seemed to relax slowly back to his previous state. Clearly they needed to decide on other things as a team but they had time for that later.

He turned to the other three. "As for you…"

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji's eyes widened and they Shuffled backwards a little.

Shikaku just grinned at them.

* * *

Sakura stretched when they finally finished talking. Figuring out her role on the team was a sensor and deciding on fuinjutsu was a weight off her shoulders.

Moving her arms caused her to touch her still long hair, which reminded her.

"Kiba." He looked over at her. "Can you cut my hair?"

He blinked dumbly at her for a second but quickly recovered. "Sure! Shikaku-sama, can we use your bathroom?"

He waved them off. "Yea sure, enough with the -sama already, just call be Shikaku-oji."

Sakura grinned at him, it's been too long since she hang out here. She stood and grabbed Ino. "Come on Kiba can cut your hair too."

She looked doubtful but followed behind anyway. "You first then."

Sakura nodded leading the way to the closest bathroom. "I just remembered, we should do team 7's gift baskets tomorrow."

Ino nodded seriously. "I call Hinata's."

"I'll do Kurenai-sensei, Shikamaru can do Sasuke's and Choji can do Naruto's. Shino and Kiba can help them."

Ino taps her chin as they reach the bathroom. "What do you think Kurenai-sensei likes?"

Sakura shrugs. "I'll ask Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-sensei before we leave."

Kiba comes in behind them and whines, "What have you roped me into?"

Sakura scoffs. "Please you're practically dying to pull a prank on Someone, why not Sasuke? You could help Shikamaru and Shino could help Choji."

He shrugged and started searching through the cabinets for supplies.

Eventually he finds scissors and a comb, during that time Ino went and found them both stools to sit on.

He had me get my hair wet and then he got started. "How short do you want it?" She brought her hand up to just below her ear and he nodded.

It took him around 15 minutes. He separated her bangs from the rest of her hair and cut it to the length she said evenly. He then cut her bangs to frame her face, length going just below the chin.

Sakura re-tied her Hitai-ate onto her head. "I love it, great job Kiba."

She saw him grin through the mirror. "Thanks."

Ino waved excitedly. "Come on, me next."

Ino ended up asking to have it just above shoulder length so she could still have it in her ponytail, he left her bangs alone.

"This looks great thanks Kiba."

He grinned

Ino and Sakura practically skipped back to the living room, Kiba close behind them.

The rest of their teammates complimented their hair, Sakura took the time to inform the rest about the gift baskets.

Shikamaru seemed to have a rare glint in his eye at hearing that Kiba and him were the ones to make Sasuke's. But Sakura wasn't overly worried, they won't go too overboard, probably.

Choji and Shino seemed happy with theirs. Probably because naruto's will most likely be food based. It wouldn't be surprising if they started swapping recipes afterwards.

"I'll probably include some herbs." Ino murmured to herself. "She liked making salves and ointments in the academy a lot right? She came by the shop often."

Sakura looked to Kakashi with beseeching eyes. "Do you know what Kurenai-sensei would like?"

"Ma, don't I get a gift basket from my cute students?" At her unmoved expression he sighs. "Well last time I checked she liked poisons, Asuma would know more."

Asuma sputters next to him. "Kakashi!"

"What? You do."

Asuma grumbles for a second before answering. "She likes sweets and books too, tea wouldn't be a bad idea."

Sakura nodded, already taking note of the things her parents had in stock. She could get the rest from Ino.

"Alright, let's meet before training in the market, I'll bring the baskets and then we'll split up, get everything, and meet back there." Sakura looked at Asuma. "Where is their team training ground?"

He coughs into a fist, seemingly embarrassed again. "training ground 5."

Sakura nodded decisively. Tomorrow was going to be interesting.

* * *

Kurenai didn't know what to think as her and her new team stared at the 4 gift baskets on the ground. "This is a first."

Each basket had a label attached to it with their names written on it, and a lone envelope sat in front of the baskets.

Kurenai decided to chance it and picked up the envelope. There wasn't anything weird about it and there didn't seem to be a trap, which just confused her more. She slowly pulled the card out.

She relaxed as soon as she read it. "It says, congratulations team 7, from teams 8 and 10, go ahead and take a look." It was just the other genin.

Naruto had been practically vibrating while he waited for the go ahead. Which was surprising but it seems even he can be cautious to a degree. Not that it showed in their test the day before.

So when she said it was fine, Naruto charged to his basket and hugged it to his chest. The basket itself was overflowing with instant ramen. And, much to her amusement and Naruto's horror there was also fruits, vegetables and some meat in there with the standard preservation seals that all markets attach to food to keep them fresh. There also seems to include a small pack of what looks like shuriken.

Naruto sits with his basket and starts tearing up. "This- sniff -is the best- hic -present ever."

Hinata becomes flustered. "It-it's ok Naruto-kun you don't have-have to cry."

Naruto tries to compose himself, wiping his face. "I'm alright Hinata-chan, it's just, this is so amazing."

Hinata nodded and was the next to look through her basket. This one was filled with an assortment of herbs, some Kurenai recognized but plenty she didn't. Hinata seemed to know what they are though. She reached in and pulled out a wide bracelet with a metal Narutomaki attached to it. The way Hinata's whole body seemed to blush told Kurenai the significance.

Chuckling to herself, she turned as she noticed Sasuke finally inspecting his basket cautiously. He was tense as he pulled out some supplies like smoke bombs and ninja wire. But then he pulls out a whole bag of tomatoes and seems to soften.

Kurenai will have to save that little tidbit for later. Earn his cooperation via tomato bribery.

She then noticed something sticking to the side of the basket and it took a second to recognize it. By the time she did Sasuke was already reaching for it.

"Wait!" But it was too late and sasuke ripped the pepper bomb right off, triggering it.

It detonated directly in his face causing a cloud of pepper and probably some other spices to plume around Sasuke and the basket. He snatches up his bag of tomatoes and rushes about 10 feet away from the cloud. He hugs them to his chest, visibly bristling, then he starts to cough.

Naruto ends up rolling around on the ground in his hysterical laughter. "Haha they got you good Teme! Best day ever!"

Hinata just looked worried.

Kurenai couldn't help chuckling and decided to see what was in her's. The first thing she spotted was a set of vials of poison that seem suspiciously like the ones she buys from the Yamanakas regularly. Next there was what seemed to be an adventure novel, a box filled with dango and a preservation seal on it, a tin of tea imported from Kiri, and a pair of fluffy slippers.

Kurenai smiled to herself as she packed it away, aside from the pepper bomb all of these items were very useful and thoughtful. She would certainly be using her own to relax later that evening.

She gathered the baskets back up and moved them to the side. "We'll take them home after training is over."

"Yahoo, training!" Naruto bounced around exited. "Ne, ne, Kurenai-sensei, what were those attached to the food?"

She blinked at him, bewildered, before answering. "They are preservation seals, they keep the food fresh."

He has an absolutely shocked expression. "They have those? I'll have to look for them because the places I go to don't have them. Now my food will stop going bad!"

Kurenai's eyes narrow at his words.

Looks like there are some people she'll have to have a talk with later.

But for now. "Let's start training."

Naruto jumps with a woop, causing Hinata to smile at him. Sasuke just looks disinterested but you can tell he's excited.


	6. Chapter 6

**This story is based on Naruto written by Masashi Kishimoto**

 **A/N: thanks for all the favorites, follows, and reviews. I'm going to try and increase the pace of the story, hopefully it works out. And more of my headcanons are going to be used, not all of the lore and jutsu I use are going to be canon, i'll pick and choose for the most part. Anyway, I hope you guys like how it's going.**

 **Enjoy :)**

* * *

The next morning Sakura and her teammates stood at their training ground, staring dumbfounded at their sensei.

The sensei who has so far been hours late until now. Is only 30 minutes late.

It's still late, but it's a drastic improvement, really.

Sakura and Shino are both knocked out of their stooper by Kiba's loud exclamation, "You're almost on time sensei!"

Kakashi dramatically clutched at his chest. "You should have more faith in your sensei."

All three of them gave him identical deadpan looks. He waves them off cheerfully, before he suddenly straightens his posture slightly.

Sensing his sudden seriousness, they snap to attention.

"Now." Kakashi crinkles an eye. "Before we can start on training and missions, we need to start at the basics. There's no point in learning new things with a poor foundation." He waits for them to nod before continuing, cheerful again. "Empty your pouches, all of them."

They only hesitate a second before uncliping and emptying their thigh and hip pouches.

They sorted the supplies out on the ground for Kakashi's inspection. Sakura noticed they have an almost identical amount, with Shino and Kiba sporting a few extras.

Each pile consisted of 10 shuriken, 10 kunai, a standard pack of 15 explosive tags, 2 smoke bombs, 1 roll of bandages, 5 feet of wire, and 1 pack of rations.

Kiba had some extra smoke bombs and explosive tags with the addition of flash bombs. Shino included a first aid kit and extra wire.

Kakashi hummed to himself. "Not the worst I've seen, tell me, why this amount?"

Sakura frowned. "It's what the academy recommended for genin."

He nodded. "It is true that these would be fine for D-ranks since they are restricted to within the village walls, but you won't have those forever, and I prefer to stop any bad habits early." He then unclips his own pouches, which are double the size of theirs, and empties them.

They stare, speechless.

Kakashi's pouch consists of 25 shuriken, 20 kunai, 20 senbon, 10 smoke and flash bombs each, what seems to be at least 30 feet of wire, soldier pills, a sizeable first aid kit, 4 scrolls that probably had things stored in them, and an old looking tanto that was strapped to the top of his pack.

Kiba makes an awed sound as all of them stared in admiration.

Sakura turned her wide eyes onto Kakashi. "Do all jounin carry this much?"

"Ahah." He might sound mildly embarrassed? "Some do, most think it's excessive." But he shrugs. "Being over prepared is better than underprepared, I would think."

The fact that one lead to a higher chance of death while on a mission went unsaid.

Kakashi claps his hands, gaining their attention. "I'm going to introduce you to your warm up routine, it's designed to build stamina and strength, me and a fellow jounin development it together, based on the strong fist fighting style."

Suddenly, with a brush and ink well seemingly pulled out of nowhere, he's kneeling next to kiba and lifting up his pant leg to start painting a seal on his ankle. Kiba calls out a startled 'hey!' But for the most part remains quiet as he quickly inked the rest of his limbs.

He repeated the process on Sakura and Shino before standing back.

Sakura was in awe over his speed and skill in sealing.

She hoped that could be her one day.

Kakashi crinkles his eye at their confused faces and raises a hand seal.

Sakura looks down at her wrists and ankles as they start to tingle with what was probably Kakashi's chakra. They darken for a second before fading to a tone slightly darker than her own skin. If you know what to look for, you could still see faint pink lines, but it was subtle enough.

Her eyes widened, none of the book she read on seals mentioned that trick. She thought the ink stayed black. Could she draw her own seals on herself? Instead of scrolls, she could store things on her body. The possibilities!

And Is it just her or do her limbs feel a few pounds heavier?

In her excitement she didn't notice, but they do, in fact, feel heavier. "Weight seals?"

Kakashi chuckles quietly. "That's right, usually, they are written on fabric that you can strap on as training weights, some use them as extra storage. I find this more convenient."

Sakura couldn't help but agree. That's one less thing for her to worry about taking off and putting back on.

It seems all of them went back to inspecting their seals because Kakashi clapped to get their attention again.

"To start you off, each seal is 5 pounds, I will be adding on 5 more every other day." Kakashi chuckles at their annoyed groans. "You will be doing your warm ups every morning while you wait for me." He plows ahead as they groan louder. "And if you don't finish before I get here, you'll be doing extra."

That shut them up, though they made their displeasure known through their glares.

If they could see through his mask he'd probably be giving them a wide grin. "After I walk you through the warm up, we'll go pick out a mission, take a lunch break, and then go shopping."

All of them sighed in resignation before adopting a look of determination.

* * *

Sakura, Shino and Kiba all leaned on each other for support as they walked towards the market in search of food, Akamaru passed out in Kiba's jacket.

They were even tired enough not to notice Kakashi steering them towards a restaurant.

He was able to get them into a round booth and they were coherent enough to sip on the water when it was placed in front of them.

Kakashi would think he was pushing them too hard, but they needed to get used to it as soon as possible if they were going to survive at higher ranked missions.

It took him the whole night trying to decide on what to do. How was he going to protect a team of genin? All of his teammates and some comrades have died, either around him or because of him.

In just two days these genin have left an impression on him.

He would not let his munchkins meet the same fate.

So he decided on the only answer that made sense. Train them, teach them everything he knew.

He'll protect them to the best of his ability. But when that isn't enough, when he isn't there.

They'll be able to protect themselves.

Kakashi shook himself out of his musings and asked what they wanted to order. He got a bunch of mumbles in reply that he translated to vegetable tempura for Sakura, sushi for Kiba, rare steak for Akamaru, and onigiri for Shino.

And well, if Kakashi ordered two more servings of vegetable tempura for Shino and Kiba and a bowl of rice with sashimi for Sakura, they were too tired and hungry to notice.

Once they managed to finish all of the food and chug down a few more glasses of water, they were significantly more alert.

Kakashi decided to take the opportunity and ruffle their hair with lightning speed.

"Alright little sprouts, we'll be going to the market." They grumbled while fixing their hair but listened anyway. "I'll show you the stalls to go to for the best quality and I'll help you pick out the items you need."

Sakura smiled brightly. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei, my parents taught me about most of the stalls in the market, but they haven't taught me about the ninja specialty ones in as much depth."

"Not to worry Saku-chan, that's what I'm here for." Kakashi waved to the waiter for the bill.

"Hey!" Kiba whined. "Why is Sakura the only one with a nickname?"

Kakashi's eye crinkled in amusement. "Your and Shino-kun's names are already short enough." Akamaru interrupted him with a whine of his own. "Of course you have a nickname Maru-chan."

Akamaru barked happily and Kiba glowered down at him. "Traitor." Then he sent Kakashi a sly grin. "Fine, but that means you're Kaka-sensei."

Shino hummed. "I like it." The slight curve of a smile peeked out above his high collar. "Kaka-sensei."

Sakura sighed in contentment and tried it out herself. "Kaka-sensei."

He couldn't contain himself and leaned forward, ruffling their hair again and giving Akamaru a pat on the head. He sat back and savored their indignant squawks as they tried to straighten their hair again.

He would protect his pups.

Without fail.

* * *

Akamaru lifted his head higher to enjoy the breeze as Kiba and the rest of their pack walked through the market. It was one of his favorite things to do thanks to all of the delicious food and spices he could smell in the air.

He decided he needed a higher vantage point after a few minutes of lounging. Akamaru climbed out of Kiba's jacket and jumped onto Kaka-sensei's shoulder before climbing the rest of the way to the top of his head. His hair is comfy, and from the smell of his clothes and hair, he's not the only ninken to think so.

Akamaru barked, asking him when they would get to meet the others.

Kaka-sensei chuckled and gave him scratches. "I was planning on introducing you after we're finished shopping. Don't tell the others it's a surprise."

Akamaru melted into his hair and sighed in agreement. Thoroughly enjoying himself.

He had the best pack ever.

* * *

Kakashi's plan is to help them pickout the supplies for their pouches and which first aid kit would be best for them. Then they would take everything to the shop owner, who would hopefully, like him enough to give them a discount. Allowing them to pay with the money from their mission earlier.

That part of the plan goes off without a hitch, and while they are walking out of the shop, Kakashi picks up 3 replicas of his hip pouch in forest green and pays for them himself.

They're more expensive than the standard pack, due to the larger size and the dividers sewn in for organization. None of his cute students would have enough for them.

Next was the weapons shop.

The shop had a display of any weapon you could imagine. And they were for display purposes only. Once you picked out the ones you want, you would then put in your order for that weapon to be custom made.

Walking into the shop, his little minions started making ooh and aww noises at all of the displays.

Akamaru finally started squirming on his perch, so Kakashi picked him up off his head and transferred him back to Kiba.

"Alright minions, Browse the items, Shino-kun, Saku-chan, you will pick out one so choose carefully. Kiba-kun, you will choose 3 for now, any more before you become chunin would be too taxing. Try to pick a variety of ranges."

There was a chorus of, "Yes Kaka-sensei!" And they were off peering excitedly at all the weapons.

He strolled over to the owner while keeping an eye on his students.

The owner greeted him with a smile. "Ah, Hatake-san, I see you finally have your own genin."

He eye smiled politely. "So it would seem Kobayashi-san, put whatever they choose on my tab, and have them forged out of chakra blade metal."

Kobayashi goggled at him for a moment. "That's very generous of you."

It's true that Kakashi has a well earned reputation as a cheapskate. But if he's going to do this sensei thing, he might as well go all in.

What can he say? His student's cuteness won him over.

On the outside he just shrugged. "I'm in a generous mood."

That earned him a sceptical look, but he ignored it and focused back on his students.

Sakura seemed to have gravitated towards the bladed staff and spear section, which were generally mid range. Though spears are considered long range when you throw them. Other, shorter staffs could be considered short range, mainly for stabbing.

Kakashi nodded to himself, decent choice and it should pair well with a fuinjutsu focus.

Kiba has already picked out a pair of trench knives for his short range, and is now wandering around for his next too. Over the next few minutes Kiba proceeded to pick out a Kusarigama, which is a kama attached to a weighted chain, and steel tonfas.

Kakashi sighed to himself and pointed the choices out to the owner. "The trench knives are fine at their length, but make the tonfas longer, they need to be less short range and closer to mid range. And lengthen the chain on the kusarigama by 10 feet."

That should do it.

While he was preoccupied with Kiba, Sakura finally decided on a naginata. The staff length ended at around her shoulder, where the blade started, and it ended about 6 inches above her head. It was a solid mid range, mostly for slashing and stabbing since throwing with it wouldn't really work out well. It's a curved blade after all, not like the straight blades on spears.

After taking down her order, Kobayashi came around the counter and started taking her measurements to adjust the height of the staff.

Then Kakashi finally turned his attention to Shino.

Huh.

Who had apparently decided to pick out a bow and arrows to go with it.

While they are used by some, bows aren't very popular among ninja. But for Shino, who is predominantly a long ranged fighter, this is a very good choice, he wouldn't be limited to shuriken and kunai as his long ranged weapons.

Once he was done with Sakura, Kobayashi came over and took Shino's measurements for the bows size adjustments. And then finally took Kiba's hand measurements for the trench knives.

Once everything was ordered Kobayashi smiled. "It's nice to see genin pick something other than tantos and katanas for once. Will these be individual items or part of a set."

They all huddled together and whispered for a moment before nodding.

Awww his students were bonding so fast.

Sakura, as the chosen spokesperson, responds. "As a set, with our clan symbols engraved into them on a spot of your choosing." She looks back at the other two before continuing. "And we all like green, purple and blue. So surprise us." She finished with a smile.

With the order finished, they say their goodbyes and walk out of the shop.

Kakashi didn't even walk a few feet before he was bombarded from all sides.

Kiba hugged him around his middle, face squished into his stomach. "You're the best Kaka-sensei!" Akamaru barked in agreement from Kiba's hood.

Sakura hugged him from the side, just as tightly. "Thanks Kaka-sensei."

Shino leaned into his other side. "Thank you Kaka-sensei."

Kakashi put one arm around Sakura and Kiba, the other arm pulled Shino further into the hug. They were so small that Kakashi's arms were long enough to go around all three of them.

Really.

His pups were just too cute.

* * *

Once they reached the training ground for the second time that day Sakura, Shino and Kiba all started on their stretches. Although they had been there that morning, their tired muscles needed to be woken back up after their mission of tending an old woman's garden, and shopping soon after.

Right when they finished Kakashi clapped to get their attention. "For this afternoon and most of the days following we'll be concentrating on jutsu and chakra manipulation."

"Kaka-sensei?" Sakura interrupted quickly. "What is our schedule?"

His eye crinkled. "I'm glad you asked. You meet here in the morning at 0800, same as today, you all do your warm ups, once I get here we will do taijutsu and weapons training. Then we'll go pick out at least one mission. After our lunch break we'll alternate between jutsu/chakra manipulation training, which is what we're doing now, and team training, which we will do tomorrow."

He hummed to himself. "That's the plan for the first 4 days starting today, then 2 days with the same morning routine, but those afternoons will be up to you, clan training, independent study, practicing what you already know, whatever you want."

Shino tilted his head in seeming confusion. "And the last day?"

Kakashi's eye closed completely. "your rest day of course, do whatever you want all day." He opened his eye to stare at them seriously. "When I say rest I mean rest, it's nice getting more practice but your bodies need rest."

All of them nodded just as seriously.

Kakashi clapped, cheerful again. "Back to what I was saying, today we'll start with the basics, the academy three!" they all groaned, "by the time we're done, you should be able to do them in your sleep." His eye gained a particularly sadistic gleem.

Sakura and her teammates sighed in defeat, took their bags from shopping, and placing them to the side.

"Let's start with the henge."

* * *

By the time they were finished they had done each of the academy three at least 30 times. Sakura only had the tiniest trickle of chakra left in her body.

"That's a good start." The gleam in Kakashi's eye is seeming less sadistic and more demonic. "Aside from that I have some surprises for you."

All of them sat up from their laying positions, with curious expressions.

He pulled out one of his storage scrolls and unsealed three identical forest green packs.

Sakura was speechless, Kakashi had gotten them packs that were just like his.

Kiba made a move to tackle hug him but Kakashi lifted a hand just in time. "Hold on, there's more, so take your packs and organize them how you like, then we can move on to the next one."

Kiba pouted but took his pack and sat down, Sakura and Shino followed suit.

Sakura grabbed her bag and unclipped her smaller hip pouch.

She places the first aid kit in the biggest section, from there she placed every type of item in it's own section. She then takes her new shuriken and kunai, and tries to fit as many as she can into her thigh pouch, the extras go into the last sections in her new hip pouch.

She clips on the pouch, and it's big enough to go all the way across her lower back.

The others finished around the same time and they all ended up staring at Kakashi expectantly.

"Ma ma." He reached into his pouch and pulled out 4 square pieces of paper. "Do you know what these are?"

Shino answered. "Chakra paper." Sakura and Kiba nodded in agreement.

"Great!" Kakashi passed them out and held up the remaining one. "How the paper reacts to your chakra determines what element you have the closest affinity to."

He held the paper closer to them and added a small amount of chakra, causing it to wrinkle. "That means I have lightning."

Practically shaking in his excitement, Kiba sends some chakra into the paper. A small corner burns off before the rest crumbles into dirt.

"Woohoo! I have two affinities!" Kiba picked Akamaru up from the ground and tossed him up in the air.

Only for Kakashi to rain on his parade. "Not quite, the fire was just a small corner so while fire would be easier for you to learn than wind, water and lightning, earth will be by far, the easiest."

While Kiba sat down to pout, both Sakura and Shino sent chakra to theirs.

They both crumbled to the ground.

Kakashi hummed, "A whole team of earth elements, not uncommon. Although fire is the norm in Konoha, earth is a close second."

Sakura frowns. "Wouldn't a variety be better?"

"While combos between different elements like fire and wind can have devastating effects, and having earth elements makes all of you vulnerable to lightning." His eye crinkles reassuringly. "All three of you working on an earth jutsu can make it over three times as strong."

"Besides!" He finishes cheerfully. "There's nothing wrong with learning more elements later on in your careers to compensate."

He reaches into a pocket on his flack jacket, and pulls out a scroll they hadn't seen before. "Now for the last surprise."

Kakashi bites down on his thumb and smears blood across the, now open, scroll. There's a giant poof of smoke that takes a few moments to clear away.

When it does, they see Kakashi, who is now surrounded by a pack of ninken.

Kiba's jaw dropped at the sight, Sakura and Shino were speechless for a moment, before Sakura lifted her arms and started making grabby hands. "So many."

The smallest dog, A pug, spoke in a surprisingly deep voice. "What's the big idea Kakashi? Making us wait this long to meet the pups."

"Ahah." Kakashi ruffled his hair, embarrassed. "I got a little side tracked."

The pug just snorts at him.

"Oh!" It looked like a literal light bulb went off in Kiba's head. "That's what the smell is. I couldn't really tell because your regular lightning smell is so overpowering, the dog smell on your clothes is almost covered up." He looks down to the puppy sitting next to him accusingly. "Akamaru can smell better than I can, but he decided not to tell me, the traitor."

With a huff Akamaru stands up and walks over to the ninken, sniffing and being sniffed as he goes, to familiarize themselves.

Sakura looks like she's about to follow Akamaru into the frey when Shino speaks up. "What are your names?"

Sakura slaps her forehead. "My Kami, that's rude of us, sorry, thanks Shino."

The pug chuckles. "My name is Pakkun."

The tan one wearing sunglasses, that look suspiciously similar to Shino's, raises a paw. "Akino."

From there, if they can talk, they introduce themselves. If not, Pakkun translates for them. They're introduced as Bisuke, Guruko, Shiba, Uhei, Urushi, and finally…

Pakkun pats the head of the dog he's perched on. "This is Bull." Said huge dog barked in greeting.

Sakura bowed. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Haruno Sakura, and these are my teammates Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba."

Kiba grinned broadly. "Hey." He chuckled as Akamaru struggled to climb Bull so he could sit with Pakkun. Eventually Bull leaned down a little to help him out.

"Hello." Shino greeted them in a softer tone of voice, which is what Sakura has started to recognize as him being happy or content.

Sakura didn't bother stalling any longer. "Can I please pet you?"

Pakkun's expression didn't change. "Ma, so polite." He leaned to the side, dodging Akamaru's affectionate tackle. "If you must."

The rest of the ninken are visibly excited, unlike Pakkun. So when Sakura jumps at them with a squeal, they converge around her in turn. Akino seemingly reaching her first.

Kiba jumped in soon after.

Shino hesitantly shuffled forward to peek into the pile. Only for two hands to shoot out and drag him in too.

They're enjoying themselves when they hear Kakashi chuckle. Looking up, they see him sit back and reach into his pouch, probably for his book.

Sakura, Shino and Kiba share a sly glance.

Kakashi pulls out his book just in time to take three genin to the chest, landing on the ground with an, 'oof.'

They knew he could have dodged them, but he didn't and they appreciated it.

Kakashi groaned dramatically. "My pups are so mean to me Pakkun."

Pakkun, who is still sitting on Bulls head, snorts at him. "Good, it builds character."

He throws his head back and groans louder.

Sakura didn't really see any significance to his new nickname for them. He's been calling them by different endearments since they met him. Minions, munchkins, sprouts, and cute students, are just a few of them, pups doesn't seem weird either.

Any thoughts on it were interrupted when Bull plopped down on all of them followed by the rest of the ninken.

Pakkun chuckled at their misfortune.

* * *

Sakura decided to make a stop on the way home. On the independent study days she would need something to work on.

The plan is to search the library for everything it had on fuinjutsu, some taijutsu katas, and katas for the naginata Kakashi ordered her, if she can find any.

If she was going to get better, she would have to use her undeniable strength, studying.

And if she is going to master fuinjutsu she's going to have to learn everything about it. The academy only ever taught them how to recognize explosive tags.

Sakura has a lot to do.

* * *

Kurenai sighed to herself as she dispelled Naruto's 20th clone. What he doesn't have in skill or any evidence of formal training, he makes up for in sheer stamina.

She glances over at Sasuke and Hinata, both still in their taijutsu spar.

It's been a few days since they had passed their test and started training.

Sasuke still refuses to spar with Naruto. Only accepting Hinata or Kurenai herself as opponents.

Because of this, their spars bring out a certain viciousness in Hinata, due to Sasuke's attitude towards Naruto. Hinata's spars with Naruto have the opposite effect, which doesn't help either of them improve so Kurenai has been taking advantage of Hinata's current distaste with Sasuke.

Sasuke is able to get past her guard by feinting a punch to the face. When she dodges his fist continues until his elbow is in line with her temple. He elbows her faster then she can block, knocking her to the ground and ending the spar.

As this is their 5th round, Hinata being the winner of 2 out of 5. It probably has more to do with exhaustion than a show of skill level. And if Hinata allowed herself to use chakra it would be at least 3 out of 5.

Her irritation has proven to be a great motivator.

Sasuke gets back into a ready stance after catching his breath. "Again."

Hinata slowly tries to get back up.

Since they've been going for a few hours after their mission, Kurenai decides to call it there.

She tosses one more Naruto clone over her shoulder before clapping, getting their attention. "Alright, that's enough for today, rest, eat dinner, get some sleep." She smiles kindly at them. "See you in the morning."

They all say their goodbyes, Naruto walks to another part of the training ground to continue, Hinata follows at a distance to keep an eye on him, and Sasuke starts to head back to his compound to continue training there.

These kids never listen to her.

Kurenai glances at Sasuke's retreating figure, that boy really needs to treat his teammates better.

Well, no time like the present.

"Sasuke, do you mind having a chat?"

He turns around at her voice, his face clearly showing he would rather swallow lava. He turns and walks back over anyway.

Kurenai takes a seat on the ground and waits for Sasuke to do the same, which he does, reluctantly.

Kurenai starts. "We need to talk about your feelings toward Naruto." His face twists into a scowl. "Is there a reason you refuse to spar with him?"

Sasuke scoffs. "He's dead last, he doesn't challenge me."

"Clearly you haven't seen how many clones he can throw around." She leans forward, expression serious. "You shouldn't underestimate your teammates."

"They need to be treated with respect, while you are genin you will be spending all your time with them, share memories with them." She gave him a significant look. "Share dreams with them, and more often than not they will be the thing standing between you and death."

She could tell her words had some impact but his expression broadcasted denial. "They will have no part in my dream."

Kurenai decided not to push it with that subject and took the next subject opening. "You mentioned it earlier, 'to kill a certain man'." Sasuke flinched. "Do you know how?"

Sasuke looks about ready to storm off. "By getting stronger."

"Ok, and?" When he just growled in reply, she continued. "Itachi was a prodigy, you can't hope to beat him by just, 'getting stronger' you need a method. Then you take your choice and master it, become so good that there's no way he could win."

Sasuke had started to calm down and listen when she mentioned beating him. "And how would I know what to master?" Probably half expecting her to not have an answer.

She allows herself a small smile. "Well, any ninjutsu you can use he will be able to, due to his sharingan. That doesn't mean you can ignore those, just know they won't give you an edge, same with him predicting taijutsu moves and seeing through most genjutsu."

Sasuke seems to be losing interest again. "And what does that leave?"

Kurenai decides to answer him with another question. "Besides copying ninjutsu, seeing through patterns in taijutsu, and being unaffected by genjutsu, what can the sharingan do?"

He actually takes a minute to think. "Cast their own genjutsu."

She nods. "Good enough genjutsu to catch anyone 100% of the time, when mastered, even other sharingan users." She leans forward more to try and convey the importance. "The mind is far easier to tear apart than the body." Kurenai sat back with a smile. "So genjutsu seems like the best route for you, even if you don't activate your own sharingan. And lucky for you that your sensei is a genjutsu mistress."

As soon as Sasuke started to smirk she held up a finger. "But, if you want extra training from me, you will put real effort into getting along with your teammates, I'm serious about what I said earlier."

He clenches his jaw before forcing out. "Fine."

He proceeds to stand up and storm off in the direction that Naruto and Hinata went earlier.

Well, that went better than expected.

She'll work on his attitude later.

* * *

Sasuke sulked as he walked towards his teammates.

Why doesn't Kurenai understand that they aren't worth wasting his time.

He could be training right now.

But the way Kurenai talked about the usefulness of genjutsu was convincing.

Thinking back to what he saw that night… what he was shown…

He couldn't say she was wrong.

If he wanted to learn from her, he would have to do what she says, for now.

Sasuke reached Hinata first, sitting against a tree while watching Naruto beat up his own clones.

If he had to interact with them, might as well get some training out of it.

He stopped next to Hinata. "Spar with me."

Hinata looks up at him apprehensively. "II'm going to be mmeditating for the night."

While she's become less timid over the last few days, her stutter hasn't gone away completely, and it becomes stronger around Naruto, causing her to become flustered.

Hinata continued speaking while he was thinking. "You could ask Naruto-kun."

Sasuke scoffed. "I'm not going to waste my time on the dobe."

Like every other time he's insulted Naruto, Hinata sits up straighter in reaction. "Naruto-kun isn't a waste."

Using that tactic, getting a rise out of her isn't hard. "Hn, fine, spar with me, anything goes, last one standing wins." He smirks at her. "If you win, I'll spar the dobe whenever he wants. If I win you spar with me when I ask, deal?"

She's been a decent sparring partner so far, might as well secure her cooperation. Taking the risk of her winning instead is worth it.

Hinata hasn't used chakra while using her gentle fist taijutsu at all, nor has she used her byakugan. And Sasuke wanted that challenge.

Her expression gains an impressive amount of determination. "Deal."

They move away from where Naruto is still training, and get into ready positions. Hand up in the seal of confrontation.

They nod at each other.

Sasuke lunges forward.

"Byakugan!"

* * *

The only sound that could be heard in that clearing was heavy panting.

Hinata and Sasuke stood opposite each other, the clearing around them littered with scorch marks and shuriken. Both of them are covered in cuts and bruises, ready to collapse from exhaustion.

They had been going at it for 30 minutes, and neither of them had the stamina of their 3rd teammate.

Sasuke falls to his knees. His vital, though not fatal, chakra points closed.

Hinata releases a shaky sigh before slowly making her way toward him.

She stops right in front of him, forming the seal of reconciliation.

He slowly looks up and stares at her hand. Smirking, he completes the sign.

His hand drops back down, energy spent.

"I can unblock your chakra points." At his nod she motions for him to sit instead of kneel.

She's only able to unblock two of them when she gets interrupted by a loud shout.

"That was awesome Hinata-chan! You were like zoom! Pow! Bam! Please spar with me, it'll be so cool!"

At Naruto's exclamation Hinata's face turned bright red, ruining any concentration she had.

Seeing this, Sasuke groaned.

Naruto smirked at him. "Don't worry Sasuke, I haven't forgotten about you, we can spar too."

He resigns himself to waiting for Hinata to snap out of it so she can finish. "Whatever dobe."

"Teme!"

A jumble of unintelligible noises come out of Hinata's mouth.

Kurenai smiles foldly down at them from up in a tree.

They're getting there.

* * *

"Get up you lazy bum!"

Shikamaru groaned and rolled over. "Damn it Ino." The sun isn't too bright and there's a nice breeze, perfect for cloud watching.

"There's no time for lazing around. I just saw Sakura and her team roof hopping while a pack of ninken chased them. If they're training, we're training." She kicked him in the side. "So get up!"

He sighed to himself. "Then why don't we just go join them and the ninken."

Shikamaru cringed as he heard Ino gasp. He just had to say something.

"That's a great idea!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him up forcefully, pulling him along as she ran. "Choji! Let's go find Sakura!"

"Ok!"

Shikamaru resigned himself, maybe this way Sakura will take up all of Ino's attention.

The sound of barking was getting closer.

At least they're rest day was tomorrow.

* * *

Kakashi sighed, finally allowing himself to lounge on his couch for first time all week.

It was finally rest day.

Admittedly, a genin team is far more exhausting than he expected.

But his pups have grown on him, so he can't really complain.

He sighs again and turns his head to glance down the hallway.

In the first week of training they have improved their stamina, strength, taijutsu spars, academy three, and shurikenjutsu.

Next week he'll teach them tree walking, if they succeed, he'll have them improve the academy three further.

But a thought has been bothering him. He wants to teach them everything he can, prepare them as much as possible.

That has brought up memories of the Hatake family scrolls he brought with him when he moved out of that house.

Before they settled in Konoha, the Hatake were well travelled. They weren't nomads by any means but they moved around often. They picked up scrolls and artifacts of all kinds. The civilian part of the family took it upon themselves to collect things, that's how most of it was acquired.

Kakashi got up from the couch and walked down the hallway, stopping in front of a sealed door. He bites his thumb and wipes the blood across it.

The door unlocks and he steps inside.

He doesn't bother looking around at the various items and just goes straight to the three scrolls he had in mind.

One of which was once used by his father.

Ignoring those thoughts, he picks them up and looks them over, not noticing any damage.

He really is doing this sensei thing isn't he.

A small smile appeared on his face.

He'll give them the scrolls as a reward later on. maybe after their first c-rank? That should work.


End file.
